Vango Blade Pro 200

Interesting design with pros and cons, could have been worked out better.

Motivation

• I bought this as a one-man tent, to have enough space for my pack inside. Buying the Blade 100 would relatively save little weight and not be wide enough.
• I wanted to have more headroom than in the bivouac tent I already had, to be able to sit up inside.
• I deliberately wanted a really doubly walled tent instead of a mostly mesh inner tent, to be able to use it in winter. Probably that would also be warmer than my singly walled GoreTex bivouac tent of almost the same weight.

Noted

• On receipt colours were different than expected, as I had seen images of orange inner tents and guy lines, while my tent was all green. So I wondered if I had been sent an older model. On closer inspection of the product images at Vango, it apparently was correct.

Pros

• Size was as expected, even though space efficiency logically is not as high as in a tunnel or dome tent because of the slanted sides. Length just fits my large size mattress, but I have to lie a bit diagonal to benefit from the back corner. The sides are quite low, but there is plenty of floor space to lay out loose items.
• Production quality is good.
• There are some small patches of all fabrics for repair, plus 1 guy line and 2 pieces of elastic line.
• There turned out to be 2 years of warranty, even 3 upon registration.

Cons

• The colour combination I had seen appealed more to me, while orange lines would have been more visible.
• There is not a single spare peg.
• I was not really able to neatly put up the tent with all sides tight. The front porch and back corner stay too loose. On first real use it appeared to me that their connecting buckles should be attached a bit more to the outside on the spacer tape. I may change that myself. See the newly added picture for what I mean.
• The mayor weak spot of the tent is the connection of the front tape to the inner tent. The fabric is pulled upwards from the tape at a straight angle with too much tension, and there is no way to relieve that. I had already read a review of somebody who had reinforced that himself. It is a pity Vango has not already addressed that. I fear that will be a warranty issue.
• Ventilation is limited, as I already knew. The mesh panels are small, while I prefer to keep the tent zipped close to keep bugs out.
• Some weight could have been saved by using slimmer buckles, and thinner tape and guy lines. Also the straps on the bag could have been left out, as those are not really useful. And in fact, the bag is oversized because of its design. And then there are the large labels and instructions in the tent and bag.
• I do not like the bag, as those buckles on the side are not practical when shoving the bag in and out of a back pack. I probably will use a different bag, or cut them off. The same applies to the side opening and draw-cord.
• The guy lines not only are far too thick, they also barely reflect. I fear I will have too buy more expensive lines elsewhere again. This, with added shipping costs, will considerably increase the price.
• There is a tendency of the inner and outer sheet to stick together upon condensation, which is undesirable of course. I started noticing that the morning after I had buttoned them together with the intended toggle I had just found. So better not use that. I also noticed it to be a matter of putting the front corner floor pegs out more sideways rather than to a 45 degree angle. To create more distance, as the outer sheet also attaches to them.
• I have some doubts about the wind resistance, particularly from aside of course.

Update 1

I have made some small changes to the tent and added just a few occasional pictures here.

• I added a washing line inside along the length of the tent, handy for towels.
• I replaced all guy lines and pull cords with some simple white rope, which are possibly lighter and certainly more visible (picture).
• While in a trekking I experimented pulling out the front and rear porches by the guy lines (picture, at the back). This helps, but also puts strain on the front zippers. Of course all this should not be necessary.
• I also started using the same trick on the sides, to prevent the walls sticking together.

Update 2

I was not satisfied, mainly with not being able to put up the tent tightly without trickery. This simply is a design flaw, which could be improved in general and adapted to my tent.

I contacted their representative Campingspares several times, because that seemed the only way. The said they had passed it on to Vango, simply to info@vango.co.uk so I finally could contact them.

So far no reaction at all, which is pretty disappointing as they suggest a three-year warranty. Well I wonder...